Process of alloying metals.



C. C. BALDWIN.

PROCESS OF ALLOYING METALS.

mm 77 a A 5 nnrrnn snares PATNT QFJFICEQ CI-IAUNCEY G. BALDWIN, F PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 STANDARD UNDERGROUND CABLE 00., OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A COBPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF ALLOYING METALS.

To all whom it may concern: 1

Be it known that I, OHAUNonY C. Barn WIN, a citizen of the United States, residlng at 241 lVater street, Perth Amboy, county 5 of Middlesex, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Alloying Metals, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

The object of this invention is to furnish an improved method of making metallic alloys in which one of the metallic ingredients is of a volatile character when heated to the temperature of the more refractory ingredients, and is thus liable to great loss by volatilization if melted simultaneously therewith.

To avoid such loss in the making of copper alloys, it has beenproposed to place the zinc or tin in a solid state in a receptacle and to draw molten copper from the taphole of a melting furnace directly into the said receptacle upon the solid ingredient; but'the tap-hole of such a furnace is not adapted to discharge the melted metal under such control nor in such regulated quantities as would be needed to make, with a given weight of zinc, an alloy of specific proportions. 1

I therefore in the present invention interpose a tilting ladle between the melting furnace and the receptacle containing the solid zinc or. tin, with the tilting ladle mounted below the tap-hole, and which ladle may be tilted by hand and the flow of metal there from exactly controlled. The said tilting ladle may receive charges of irregular quantities from the tap-hole of the furnace, but supply exactly the desired amount to the receptacle containing the solid zinc or tin.

' I am aware that one metal is frequently placed in a vfurnace containing another previously melted metal to alloy therewith, which practice is permissible where allof the metals require an equally high temperature; but the. case is materially different where one of the metals is easily ,vaporized at the melting temperature of the othermetal. i

L It is apparent that bymy inventiongthe alloy s formed exterior to the melting zone 1n WhlCh thecopper is melted, and the more volatile metal is therefore subjected only to the heat contained in the melted copper, and

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 7,191":

Application filed August 4, 1916. Serial No. 113,046.

is not exposed to the accumulated-heat of the melting furnace-chamber and its walls, which is materially in excess of that contained in the melted copper.

' I have illustrated in the annexed drawing the means for practising the invention, consisting of a furnace at for melting the copper and having a tap-hole b with a spout c beneath the same. A tilting-ladle (Z is shown located below the spout, its delivery-end being mounted upon pivots e and its rear end or body is movable vertically by a link 7 and crank 9 attached to a shaft h.

The rocking of such shaft by a handlever operates to elevate therear end of the tilting-ladle, as indicated in the drawing.

A hand-ladle i which can be manipulated by handles 7' is supported beneath the spout of the tilting-ladle and supplied with a suitable charge of zinc or tin, and a stream of molten metal 7c is represented as" flowing from the. tilting-ladle into the hand-ladle to supply the required proportion of copper.

When the body of the tilting ladle is lowered it retains any charge delivered into it from the tap-hole. The manipulation of the hand-lever permits the tippingof the tilting ladle to control the flow from the mouth of the tilting ladle into the hand-ladle, and the operator can thus supply exactly the amount required to form the alloy desired.

In practice, the hand-ladle with a definite charge of zinc is supplied with the copper to a pre-determined point, which indicates the volume of copper to form a specific alloy with the given quantity of zinc.

A series of ingot molds Z is shown supported upon a turntable m so as to be moved successively close to the hand-ladle i, from which they can be filled in succession with the molten alloy which is formed therein.

Sand-molds of any size, or' form may be prepared to form castings and the molten alloy poured into them from the handdadle.

The saving effected by pouring the alloy, as soon as formed, into suitable molds is verygreat, as the re-melting of copper alloy requires the ,use of hard coal, but the copper itself can be melted by the use of soft coal, costing very much les Tomake the copper more dense and solid a deoxidizing agent as copper phosphorus or .is greatly facilitated by the provision of the tilting-ladle between the furnace tap-hole and the receptacle in which the alloy is formed, as the flow of metal from the taphole is irregular in quantity, and the de-oxidizing agent could not be supplied to it in the exact proportion that is possible when pouring the metal from the tilting-ladle into the hand-ladle.

The quantity to be poured upon the zinc in the hand-ladle is previously known, and

a proper proportion of the de-oxidizing agent can be mingled with it during such pouring, and the de-oxidizing agent thus mixed more uniformly and without any Waste. By this invention, copper alloys can be made in more exact proportion than by the means previously used to pour the melted copper upon the more fusible ingredient.

My experience shows that the ordinary methods of mixing a deoxidizer with an alloy of copper and zinc is not effective in eliminating the oxygen, but results in the segregation of the deoxidizer in a greater or less degree in the castings that are produced. p

I find that the treatment of copper, to form an alloy, must be different from' that required by steel and alloys not containing copper, as the copper is readily contami-' nated in a melting-furnace, and is the element which needs the de-oxidizing treatment.

I therefore apply my deoxidizer to the primary molten metal (copper) as it is poured upon zinc or.=tin to produce an alloy,

and the deoxidizer is thus more effective and economical in its operation than when applied to an alloy previously formed.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention what is claimed herein is:

1. The process of making alloys of copper with more fusible metals, as lead, zinc and tin, which process consists first, in reducing the copper to a molten state'in a melting temperature, second, storing a charge of the melted copper outside of such melting temperature, and third, by manual control adding a specific quantity of the stored molten copper to a specific quantity of solid alloying metal, and thus forming therewith an alloy of specific proportions.

2. The process of making alloys of copper with more fusible metals, as lead, zinc and tin, which process consists, first, in reducing the copperto a molten state in a melting temperature, second, storing a charge of the melted copper outside of such melting temperature, third, by manual control gradually adding a specific quantity'of the molten copper to a specific quantity of solid alloying metal, and'simultaneously and proportionally introducing into the current of molten copper, as it is added to the alloying metal, a specific'quantity of a suitable de-oxidizing agent, which is thereby thoroughly mixed with the copper before combining with the alloying metal.

In'testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

OHAUNCEY C. BALDWIN. 

